ARMONK, N.Y., Oct. 3, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) announced today that leading Croatian Web hosting provider Avalon selected IBM System x servers over competing Dell offerings for its hybrid cloud infrastructure to support increasing client demands and enhance the services it offers.

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Established in 1997, Avalon is a managed service provider offering full hosting capabilities on multiple platforms, including Linux. It provides services such as Web hosting, virtual private servers, provisioning, monitoring, online collaboration, email, and domain and application management to more than 16,000 Web sites across Europe. Avalon's clients span different segments and industries, including telecommunications operators, state agencies and local governments, hospitals, and a variety of small and medium sized businesses.

Faced with a growing demand for hosting services from existing clients and the need to add new clients and workloads, while adhering to the same quality of service, security and speed, Avalon decided to consolidate its IT infrastructure on a hybrid cloud model using IBM System x3550 and x3650 servers.

To ensure continued high performance without downtime and 24/7 support for its clients, Avalon operates a data center with more than 1,000 fiber optic connections distributed among three geographically separated routes. This setup enables enough bandwidth to accommodate future growth. Avalon is also the only hosting provider in the region with the highest level of certification for service quality and security -- ISO 9001:2008 and ISO 27001:2005.

"The IBM solution was the best one to fit our needs," said Damir Mujic, CEO, Avalon. "IBM's System x server platform together with IBM networking provides a reliable, flexible and cost-effective IT infrastructure that scales as we grow and can handle diverse workloads. In addition, with IBM we avoid integration issues arising if we have to deal with different companies delivering different parts of an overall solution."

Avalon selected IBM System x over Dell after a thorough testing, putting special focus on IBM's advanced system management features. With the new IT infrastructure, Avalon gains a powerful and flexible server platform that reduced its IT footprint by 60 percent, decreases administration processing times by 35 percent and is immediately ready for use.

"Our solution helps Avalon achieve better performance and process large amounts of network data more quickly and easily," said Damir Zec, Country Sales Leader, IBM Croatia. "As data traffic grows, Avalon can continue to provide clients with a better cloud experience."

For more information about Avalon, go here. You can find more information about IBM's System x servers at this link.

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    Danijela Radinkovic

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SOURCE IBM